This course will introduce students to Health Technology Assessment from a global perspective. It will cover HTA in different contexts, exploring geographical variation between high-income countries as well as looking more in-depth about how and why decision-making in healthcare may differ in LMICs.

10 week online course comprising 10 lectures and 10 accompanying practical exercises. The lectures will be 45 mins/1 hr in duration and the exercise associated with each lecture will take a notional 2 hours for the student to complete. Each week the academic lead will contribute to and answer questions on a discussion board.

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Written Assignment/Coursework - Students will be asked to critically appraise a HTA case study and present their findings as an oral presentation (25%). The written report (75% - 1500 words) will also be based on a HTA case study where students will be asked to critically assess the transferability of an existing HTA into different contexts/health care systems.

The course aims to equip students with the necessary skills to develop an understanding of HTA guidance and processes in different jurisdictions, to critique HTA in different contexts and to gain technical and analytical skills in the application of HTA, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Critically evaluate and differentiate between differently structured health care and reimbursement systems

■ Critically discuss the role and contribution of HTA in decision making from a global perspective

■ Evaluate the existing methods and guidance for conducting HTA in different context or systems

■ Interpret the barriers, constraints and challenges in adopting HTA in different contexts

■ Create, interpret and critically discuss output after applying methods of cost-effectiveness analysis, Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) as health outcome measures, budgetary impact, burden of disease, thresholds, and synthesizing evidence, particularly in LMICs

■ Critically discuss stakeholders' involvement in HTA and health care policy and decision making

■ Evaluate the transferability of HTA across different contexts

■ Critically analyse the opportunities, constraints, and challenges related to the application of different tools and methods (e.g. WHO's CHOICE, Generalised Cost Effectiveness Approach etc.) in LMICs

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.